Lost Immunity by Daniel Kalla (free reads TXT) 📕

again at Lisa, whose expression is still blank. “Our cause has been marginalized forever. It’s kind of rewarding to be finally validated.”

“But last time we met…” Lisa speaks up for the first time. “You told me you were seriously considering getting your son vaccinated.”

“I was concerned about this meningitis scare. I still am.” Max shrugs. “Then, after seeing the clinic for myself, I decided against it.”

“You mean clinics,” Lisa says.

“Sure. Whatever. I decided it wasn’t worth the risk to expose my son to another vaccination.” He grins. “I think you’d have to concede that it wasn’t such a bad decision in retrospect.”

“What I meant is that you attended multiple clinics.”

The smile involuntarily slips off his face. “Who told you that?”

“Your girlfriend works for Public Health, doesn’t she?” Eileen asks.

“And that’s relevant how?”

Ignoring the question, Eileen says, “We understand you hounded her for the specific details about those clinics.”

Max feels his neck tightening. He tries to summon an indifferent tone, but he realizes he can’t. The words topple out of his mouth. “Of course I was interested in this new vaccine! As you keep pointing out, this cause is my passion.” His eyes dart to Lisa. “And Seattle Public Health has tried to force not one but two toxic vaccines down our throats in the past month alone.” He forces himself to take a deep breath. “Since when did activism become a crime?”

“Activism isn’t a crime,” Eileen says. “Not even spying on the clinics would constitute one.”

He waits for her to continue, but she leaves the argument half-finished. “Where is the crime, then?” he asks.

“Can you tell us why you wanted vials of the vaccine so badly?” Lisa asks.

“Yolanda never gave me a single vial!”

“Not from your lack of trying.”

Max only scoffs in response.

“What were you planning to do with those vials, Dr. Balfour?” Eileen demands.

He plants his hands on the desktop and pushes himself upright. “What’s this really about?”

“We’re looking into the possibility that the vaccine was sabotaged.”

“Sabotaged?”

“As in someone poisoned the vials, Dr. Balfour,” Lisa says. “And that’s why those kids reacted as badly as they did.”

“And you’re accusing me?” His voice rises with each word.

“We are just asking,” Eileen says. “At least, for right now.”

His rage explodes as if a detonator had been tripped. “Isn’t this just fucking typical? Big Pharma is worried about their precious bottom line. They need a fall guy. And so they sic the feds on me. Make up some absolute bullshit about poisoned vials. How the hell do you poison a poison, anyway?”

“Dr. Balfour, you should—”

Max shakes a finger at them both. “Kill two birds with one stone, huh? Big Pharma gets to save their huge profits and frame the anti-vaxxer. How fucking convenient!”

“You need to calm down, Dr. Balfour,” Eileen says in an even but stern tone.

“You really want to know what I was doing at those clinics?” Max yanks his desk drawer open. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Eileen’s hand dart inside her blazer. He throws his hands up, realizing she’s reaching for her gun. “No. No. It’s OK. I just want to show you something. In the drawer.”

The agent keeps her hand where it is.

“To explain what I was doing at those clinics,” he says, forcing the civility back into his tone.

“Slowly,” Eileen says, relaxing her arm.

Max carefully extracts what looks like a pen from the drawer. He holds it out to them.

The two women share a confused glimpse.

“A pen?” Lisa asks.

“It’s certainly supposed to look like one,” Max says.

“What is it?”

“A spy cam.” He holds it up as if filming them with it. “I was using a hidden camera to secretly record the clinics.”

Lisa grimaces. “What for?”

“To make an exposé.”

“Of what?”

“Anything that would paint those clinics and the vaccine in a bad light.” Max stares at her defiantly. “I got footage of a girl passing out right after she got her shot. Another time, I got a clip of nurse who didn’t change her gloves between injections. And then I got this video of one dad who barely spoke English being basically bullied into signing the consent form.” He moves the pen back and forth between the women. “I spliced the clips together in a video we were going to post. We were planning to use the empty vials as visual aids. Maybe even dramatize them a bit with some crusted blood or whatever. But things turned out just fine even without the vials.”

“Who’s we?” Eileen asks.

“Some friends in the community. The plan was to make the clip go viral.”

“You were doing this to discourage people from getting their kids vaccinated?”

Max lowers himself back into his seat, feeling calm descend back over him. “We never did post it. It wasn’t necessary.” He can’t help but look over to Lisa. “Not after the vaccine revealed itself for the threat it always was.”

CHAPTER 59

“Do you believe him?” Lisa asks Eileen from the passenger seat as the agent drives them away from Max’s office.

“Some of what he said. Not all,” Eileen says. “But there’s no denying his video is real.”

Before they left, Max played them his “exposé” on his laptop. The video did capture the incidents he cited—a kid fainting, a nurse not changing her gloves, and another staff member appearing to rush a Hispanic man through signing the consent form—along with a few other clips where Lisa couldn’t even discern what the supposed infraction was.

“Could you imagine anyone being talked out of getting vaccinated by that piece of crap?” Lisa asks.

“You’re not exactly his target audience,” Eileen points out.

“His whole story could still be bullshit. Max would have had every reason for spying on those clinics if he were behind the poisonings. Maybe he threw the video together as a cover story in case he did fall under suspicion.”

“He’s by no means ruled himself out as suspect, Lisa. I’m still going to look into his e-prescription records to see if we can trace those contaminants back to him.”

“But?”

“We have to consider others, too.”

“Who?”

“Anyone